Westminster, CO Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Under Section 6-7-20, an owner must obtain a City permit before a chicken arrives on the property, submitting a permit fee, a rear-yard plot plan showing the coop, setbacks and water supply, and a signed acknowledgement of personal liability; the permit can be denied, cancelled or revoked for any violation of the chapter. Section 6-7-12(I) sets the physical standards: chickens stay in the rear yard of a single-family detached home, inside a fully enclosed, predator-proof coop giving at least six square feet per bird, capped at 120 square feet total, no taller than six feet, and set back at least ten feet from rear property lines, with only one coop per yard.

The flock itself is capped at six hens on lots up to two acres and 12 on larger lots, hens only, kept in the coop from dusk to dawn or flight-restrained if roaming the fenced rear yard by day, and the rear yard must carry a six-foot privacy fence unless it backs onto City open space. Outdoor slaughtering is banned; it may only happen indoors, limited to permitted birds. Livestock is handled separately under Section 6-7-12(B): it is a civil infraction to keep livestock in residential, business, commercial or industrial districts unless the parcel is zoned O-1 or is ten acres or larger, and livestock other than fowl must have a half-acre of pasture per animal. Bees and chickens face the same zoning gate unless kept under the single-family permit path.